Louis School Days: Week 12 – That’s a Wrap

I hope you have enjoyed reading of some of my experiences in education, which have shaped my life both personally and professionally. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to everyone who made my time at school so enjoyable, whilst encouraging and nurturing me to be my best.

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After school I went on to study Economics and Finance at the University of the West of England in Bristol and then into Lloyds as a Summer Intern and HR Graduate.

To wrap things up though I am going to share a few things that really benefited me and some things that in hindsight could have been done differently.

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Real benefits include:

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• The encouraging environment with highly intelligent teaching assistants has undoubtedly been tremendously valuable and enriched my education. They supported me in lessons to fulfil the curriculum but went above and beyond to broaden my knowledge and interest.
• Flexing the timetable to support me to enhance skills that would be more valuable in the future for me, such as learning Braille and Mobility.
• Teachers and teaching assistants going the extra mile to ensure I was included, whether that was taking me to the school disco at Primary School, building me clay models of glacial features in A-Level Geography, or ensuring I had a teaching assistant to go camping with me in Britanny during Enrichment Week at 14. These made such a difference to my educational experience.

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At the time I would have hated these changes, but I think they would have been valuable:

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• Rather than always sitting next to me in lessons, making sure I had what I needed to be included and leaving me to independently do the lesson like anyone else. This would have included getting up to some mischief and being reprimanded, as much as reducing dependants on adults. Making independent decisions and not having that support made some aspects of uni and coming into work a steeper learning curve.
• Likewise having greater independent’s, away from adults, at break times and between lessons. This would have allowed me to build greater relationships and learn some lessons alongside my peers that may have passed me by. Being in trouble for mischief might not have been a good thing, but I’d have been free to decide and learn from those mistakes as an almost a rite of passage.
• This is perhaps more generic, but being pushed outside my safety net and encouraged within uncomfortable situations like presentations would have really benefited me in later life. Self-confidence and speaking in front of others is perhaps the hardest thing I had to overcome in the workplace and all, I think, would appreciate this skill for later life too – your adult version would thank your younger self later for this!

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To be clear, I loved my education and growing up around adults really benefited me in so many ways. There is a balance to strike and whilst my heart wouldn’t change any of it, my head says some changes could have made a difference to my personal development. The support I received from Cornwall Council and my schools, Brunel Primary and Saltash.net Community School were phenomenal and speaking to others as an adult, I realise how lucky I was to be given the start in life that I have had.?

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I hope as my network you’ve enjoyed this little insight into my life. I do however also hope that some working in education with children with Special Educational Needs have come across it to and particularly reflect on these thoughts to help those they are guiding toward adulthood.??

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#Education #Disability #DisabilityInclusion #VisualImpairment #SightLoss #PrimarySchool #SecondarySchool #SpecialEducationalNeeds #SEN ?